I thought that I had packed most of our stuff when I started to redecroate the house eight months ago but I can’t believe how many more boxes we have packed this week. I am truly exhausted! I feel that I’ve been in training for the Olympic weightlifting event!
We’re about 98% done now but I have to stop today to trawl through pages of medical notes to prepare for the Inquest on Friday. I haven’t got a clue what half of it means but I kow enough and I can look up the rest. Anyone know what elevated Alkaline Phosphatase levels mean? Or C Reactive Protein way above reference level? Had to look those up but I now know that if I were a doctor I would never had discharged a patient with such indications - not unless, of course, I needed the bed for the weekend or was rushing off on a Friday afternoon to play golf.
I have a feeling that the Coroner might well be saying ‘Mr Ellingham, please sit down’.
Tags: incompetent doctors
Not only did we learn yesterday that we had sold the house I found out this morning that we also won the lottery! Yahoo!!
Mind you it’s only £6!
A couple of weeks ago a young couple came round to view the house. They had not even put their house on the market so I took little notice. Can’t even remember now what they looked like.
They put their house on the market at the beginning of this week and three days later they had sold it so they have put an offer in on ours which I have today accepted 
As far as I am aware solicitors were advised this afternoon and all systems might be go soon (but of course if their sale falls through ….)
To be honest it’s a bit of an anti-climax (we had much more exciting news a couple of days ago, of which more anon maybe). We have made all the arrangements to be on Lewis by 1st July and we were going whether the house was sold or not! Makes it a lot easier though
When I got back from Stornoway with all the carefully worked out plans for the new house we sat down for a good couple of hours and went through just how it was going to work. I explained to Mrs P that she would have her own sitting room, bedroom and bathroom - and kitchen. ‘Why do I need a kitchen if I’m eating with you?’. No - you won’t be eating with us, you will have your own completely self-contained part of the house all set up to make your life as easy as possible and we will have our own lives back. ‘Okay, so I will really be living on my own?’. Yes. Sorted.
Fast forward a week. We decide to take a trip round Next Home to check out the furniture after finding out that they will deliver to Lewis and Mrs P asks if she can come with us. After behaving like a sullen child - try that chair with a cushion ‘I don’t like the colour of that cushion’ - throws it aside - and then says ‘ This chair isn’t very comfortable’ 
we get to the tables. Find a nice small square table and say - that’s the sort of table you need. ‘Why do I need a table?’ Well. where are you going to eat? …. Wait for it …. ‘But I thought I would be eating with you’. Gordon Bennett!!!!
Back home and a good, stern, talking to is needed. We explained that you would have your own part of the house, with your own kitchen and that you would be living on your own and you agreed didn’t you? ‘Yes’. So why do you not need a table? ‘Well I know that I would be living on my own but I thought we would all be eating together’. Give me strength!!
It took another two hours with some very, very, harsh words from me before the light dawned. I patiently and dispassionately explained that I just couldn’t share the same space as her because I have my own life which has nothing whatsoever in common with her perception of what life should be. ‘So, you hate me then?’ Did I say that??? Well, if it helps
She finally got it (I think) and went to bed. Funny thing is that the following morning she was brighter and cheerier - grown up even. Better than she’d been since she got here. It might have finally sunk in.
But I’m not that daft. If anyone wants a slightly less miserable 87 year-old in the corner of their living room please leave your contact details in the comments.
When Sandy and I first decided to move to The Western Isles it was very much Location Location Location and the house could have been almost any tumble down place as long as it was in the right place. Last Tuesday I spent a very pleasant afternoon with The Soaplady and hers is very definitely the right place, no wonder she fell in love with it ten years ago - but I digress. After Sandy’s brother died last year and her mum came to live with us Location Location Location has become much less of a consideration and the most important criteria became Separation Separation Separation! She is such a nightmare to be around that we had to find a house which could be physically separated so that we could live in one half and she could live in the other and we could get our lives back - and we had to find it as quickly as possible. That was part of the plan when I went up to Stornoway last week and - what do you know - I found a house that will work perfectly on the very first day (same day as I found the rented place).
I’d seen this particular house on the internet a while back and it looked as if it might work but there was no floor plan so I needed to see it. It’s not the house we would have chosen for ourselves and it’s not in the area we would have chosen but getting our lives back has become the most overriding consideration and we have to compromise. What the house does have is two huge bedrooms downstairs, one of which becomes a sitting room, plus two other rooms that I can turn into a bathroom and kitchen. One simple door installed at the back of the stairs shuts off the whole of this part of the house and we can then begin to live our lives again without the constant misery that greets us everyday. I can even put in a separate external entrance door round the side and patio doors and a sun deck at the rear. She then gets a completely self contained home that is better than the one she left with the comfort of knowing that help, if required, is just beyond a door. Sounds a bit unkind but only those who have had the experience can truly judge.
The rest of the house, though not ideal, is fine for us for the next few years and we can add value to it by modernising it throughout. When the time comes we will sell it for more than we are paying and then move to Uig or Westside and buy the house we really want.
For most people it would be a pretty decent house and it has some reasonable views from some windows
The view from the kitchen with a perfect spot to park the camper
From what would be the guest bedroom
Surely room for few chickens there?
There you go, the compromise house. We have put an offer in which we are told is acceptable so now just have to wait to see if all the finances tie up and it goes ahead. Early days yet but I might just have killed two birds with one stone on that brief visit to Stornoway.
If it does go ahead I know that I can turn a rather dated house into something much more modern and desirable and it should hold us in good stead while we wait to see if The Soaplady’s house comes up for sale!
